Know your Saudi backed US PR firms…..the main culprits

Saudi Arabia is in the market for a better reputation in Washington, D.C.

In September alone, foreign lobbying disclosure documents show the Saudi government signing deals with PR powerhouse Edelman and lobbying leviathan the Podesta Group, according to recent disclosures. Edelman, the largest privately owned public relations agency in the world, is known for helping clients win favorable media coverage on mainstream outlets. The Podesta Group is a lobbying firm founded by Tony Podesta, a major fundraiser for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

The new signings are the latest in a year-long hiring spree by the Persian Gulf state as it further builds up its already formidable political arsenal inside the Beltway. The Saudi Arabian Royal Embassy did not respond to a request for comment. In March, the Saudi Royal Embassy retained two influential lobbying firms, DLA Piper and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. DLA Piper, for instance, employs a small army of former government officials, including retired U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and George Mitchell. Also in March, the embassy retained two firms that specialize in analyzing big data for political clients, Targeted Victory and Zignal Labs.

Saudi Arabia’s political operation already includes former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who chairs one of the largest Republican Super PACs in the country, as well as the public relations firm MSLGROUP/Qorvis, and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company that funds several influential American political groups, including the American Petroleum Institute. Aramco’s U.S. subsidiary, Saudi Refining, is a registered agent of the Saudi government. The government also finances a number of think tanks and universities, and has made contributions to prominent American nonprofits, including the Clinton Foundation.

The Podesta Group contract is with the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court. The contract, filed in the Justice Department’s foreign lobbying database, says that the firm will provide “public relations” work for the center.

Recently released FARA documents from the United States Justice Department indicate that the world’s largest Public Relations agency, Edelman – as well as lobbying behemoth The Podesta Group – have been hired by Saudi Arabian interests to further their American interests in media and government.

Richard Edelman’s PR Firm, Edelman PR, has long had close relations with the Saudi Kingdom, including ongoing representation of the Embassy to enhance, “the Kingdom’s interests among key groups within the world body and to U.N. observers.”

The Podesta Group – owned by Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta is Chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign – was hired for a $200,000 public relations engagement with the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court.

The Podesta Group specializes in global advocacy and strategic communications. Offering their top-level bipartisan support to organizations, governments, and individuals, earning them a title bestowed by Bloomberg Businessweek as the “Beltway Blackbelt.” They bring decades worth of experience calling on 535 members globally to give clients an e-ticket ride of focused boutique and data-driven results.

In Saudi Arabia, we have over 20 legal staff operating from offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar and provide the full range of legal services under the trading name DLA Piper Saudi Arabia. DLA Piper Saudi Arabia is the trading name of the association between Dr Eyad Reda and DLA Piper Middle East LLP, a part of DLA Piper, operating through various separate and distinct legal entities. — SG

Saudi Arabia is spending millions of dollars on American Public Relations firms to spin. And their spin doctors are working overtime after the execution of Shiite leader Sheik Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, followed by the severance of ties with Iran.

The Saudis spend millions for years on public relations – it has been reported they spent over $100 million from 2000 to 2010 on American propaganda.

Today, DC PR Agency Qorvis Communications who works as a PR agency for Saudi Arabia since shortly after 9/11 (which spent millions after 15 of the 19 bombers were found to have been Saudis) billed $7 Million Dollars to the Kingdom during the most recent billing period. They have arranged meetings for Saudi leaders — including Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who was appointed to the Saudi throne in January – with American government

Qorvis Communications, operating as a PR agency for Saudi Arabia since shortly after 9/11, continues their efforts to show only the best, so much so they recently doubled their usual invoice for the most current billing period ($7 million) from the previous one. Qorvis has been very busy, putting U.S. government leaders and officials in touch with members of the Saudi royal family, including Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who was appointed to the Saudi throne in January. And their efforts have been bipartisan.

As The Intercept notes, a number of people have been hired by the Saudi government with positions of influence into the U.S. government including:

The brother of Hilary Clinton’s campaign manager hired at the Saudi Embassy.Ignacio Sanchez, a top fundraiser for Jeb Bush.The leader of the largest super PAC (Republican) in the country.A law firm deeply tied to the Obama administration.

They’ve lobbied various think tank members and officials at companies like Lockheed Martin, General Electric and many other prominent and influential American business people.

In addition to Qorvis, Saudi Arabia works with a lobbyist from the law firm Hogan Lovells (H.P. Goldfield) and vice chairman of Albright Stonebridge Group. But it doesn’t end there. They also employ other PR and lobbying firms, including Edelman, DLA Piper, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and the Podesta Group. Also, firms such as Tuluna USA, American Directions Group, and Zignal Labs have been employed to do surveys on public opinion of Saudi Arabia in the U.S. and to analyze the information from a big data perspective.

The world’s largest PR firm, Edelman PR is tasked with the assignment of promoting, “the Kingdom’s interests among key groups within the world body and to U.N. observers.” Others in the PR business who work for the Saudis include Hill & Knowlton (since 1982), and other “active foreign principals for Saudi Arabia” on the FARA website include DLA Piper, Targeted Victory, Pillsbury Winthrop, Hogan Lovells, and the Podesta Group.

According to a federal lobbying filing Edelman Worldwide is working on a variety of assignments for the Saudis from December 19, 2012 through the end of 2013 – with tasks including development and production of brochures, book development/giveaways, video production, and more. And just 2 weeks ago, the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) hosted “The 4th Public Relations Forum” in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Qorvis/MSLGroup has farmed out a chuck of digital work for Saudi Arabia to Targeted Victory, the Republican consulting firm in Alexandria, Va.

Qorvis/MSL, which has been Saudi Arabia’s “go-to” PR shop since the days following the 9/11 terror attacks, will pay Targeted Victory a $40K monthly fee for online content/management and social media activities. Michael Beach, one-time national victory director for the Republican National Committee, and Zac Moffatt, digital director for the Romney for President Campaign, co-founded Targeted Victory.

Qorvis/MSL also has lined up Zignal Laboratories, Big Data/analytics shop, for a $15K monthly contract to gauge Saudi Arabia’s digital effort. Josh Ginsburg, who was political director for former California Governor Arnold Schwarznegger and field director for Romney’s presidential run, helms Zignal Labs.

Hogan Lovells LLP, another U.S. firm hired by the Saudis, is registered to work for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia through 2016, disclosures show. Robert Kyle, a lobbyist from the firm, has bundled $50,850 for Clinton’s campaign.

Excerpt: About Juda EngelmayerJuda Engelmayer oversees the Corporate Communications/Public Affairs/Crisis Communications groups for 5WPR, 1 of the 25 largest PR agencies in the U.S. He directs a team whose efforts are put to task for business, political, advocacy, and policy relates issues, as well as for individuals in national and international arenas. At 5WPR, he publicly campaigns for clients, directing promotion and positioning, and handles issues of public discourse on corporate, financial, personal and philanthropy related matters.

Bahrain in the last 12 months has hired at least ten public relations companies since last year. Yes, you read it right – ten – including Qorvis, the Washington company hired by Saudi Arabia to salvage that kingdom’s reputation abroad after the 9/11 terrorist attack. The regime of Bahrain, which tortures its own citizens, has an awful human rights record and doesn’t recognize the existence of Israel, also hired Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential bid, and Sanitas International, whose partner Christopher Harvin is a former Bush White House aide.

Several organizations connected to the kingdom play an active role in policy debates. Khalid Alnaji, a registered agent of the Saudi government and president of the US subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian national oil company ARAMCO, sits on the board of the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful lobby group that funds several conservative nonprofits and sponsors election-season television advertisements. On September 17, the former Ambassador Robert Ford, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the need to arm Syrian rebel groups.

Throughout the years, Saudi Arabia has retained numerous law and lobbying firms to influence American public opinion and policy.

The contract to work with Coleman was registered in July through Hogan Lovells, a law firm where Coleman has worked since 2011, after being defeated in his re-election campaign in 2008.

In addition to Hogan Lovells, the Saudi government counts several other firms, including Squire Patton Boggs and Qorvis-MSLGROUP, as part of its lobbying operation.

That is the only real answer. They have to turn to new alternatives for information. No one is going to be held to account for 9/11 and support for terrorists in Syria and elsewhere at this point…….ever, unfortunately, not under the current system. The establishment media are part and parcel of the Deep State. Six corporations control the US media and collude with the Deep State on the intentional deception. They have no desire to expose their own crimes or those of US corporations and the government. Its bad for business and their personal agenda and interests. Right now their agenda is boiling us like frogs when it comes to Russia. If the American people continue to want to be fed propaganda and be lied to then they will continue to being manipulated, robbed and led to war on behalf of terror states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the global elite. Simple as that. The real question is how are the American people going to continue to approach this problem?

We really need a nationwide boycott of the MSM as well as the breakup of those 6 media corps with all new regulations that follow the Fairness Doctrine. We need a new focus on responsible reporting. Consortium News is an excellent news outlet that should be encouraged as an example of how to report fairly, accurately and properly if we are going to break through the sellout media that is in bed with corrupt entities.

Wikileaks- Podesta email release highlights Clinton team discussing lobbying via foreign agents and decision making regarding accepting of various foreign donations. Note that Podesta was on point soliciting money from Gulf states.

Hi Clarity, I see you are continuing the good work. Thank you. Miss you at JPR. Don’t know what happened and if you will be back. Others are missing you as well. Is this where you will be posting from now on? Are you on another forum, or is this it? Whispers

Hi Seth, I set up the site this past week primarily as a resource for people to utilize to easily attain the info I was posting up after JPR’s Manny decided to make a concerted effort to harass me and get rid of me over there. He did the same to Polly7 who is a long time friend of mine from DU so I started worrying that he may purge my entire JPR posting history. He is definitely not to be trusted. I discussed this somewhat with former JPR mod TM99 and I think we are in agreement that Manny seems to have set JPR up as a “controlled opposition” site. Which I did call him out on. Hence my posting privileges being revoked for two weeks. Mary may be in on it or may be an unwitting dupe. She was quite quick to revoke my posting privileges as soon as I reacted strongly to Manny’s trolling of my posts. To me, it did seem like an organized concerted effort. Manny constantly jumped on my threads, refused to look at or consider strong evidence, constantly deflected from the subject of the OP, wouldn’t answer direct questions presented politely, constantly implied I post in a “Russia Good/US bad” manner, redirected the conversation to divisive LGBT issues…..His actions reminded me of the idiots at Discussionist who used to troll my posts over there. Now I seriously wonder if he wasn’t in on a ruse with Skinner at DU/Discussionist all along to simply herd the best progressive posters into one new corral where they can be more easily controlled and make a buck off of. If one looks at how last summer he came up with his Elders of JPR bullshit after my posts about the global elite and Zionists throwing regular Jews under the bus during WW2 then we start to see the beginning of the herding. Subject #1 off the table. Then came the JPR Pizza gate shutdown which nailed all conspiracy theory at JPR shut. Subject #2 down. I think he lied about being possibly sued to implement this rule. Then about a month ago he went after me on Pussy Riot. I gave him a detailed response on the facts related to the case according to the Russian law that were applied, as well as Pussy riots real history. He didn’t like that, but what was strange was that Mary was the one that responded to me in a private email on that issue and told me that now she doubts me and can’t understand why I would defend what happened to them. After that Manny has gone full bore on me for the past month and then resorted to this most recent bullshit with Mary following up with the two week suspension from posting. She also firmly stated that if I return and argue with Manny again I will have my posting privileges revoked entirely. Thus, I feel that even if I go back to posting there I won’t last long as it is very likely Manny will pursue me. That whole play on me by the two of them was easily apparent one sided bullshit. He wants an echo chamber, not a discussion board…..and yes I put this down to his being Jewish and most likely preferring we all go along like good sheep. Its impossible for me to know what exactly he is up to but his behavior now compared to Third Way Manny at DU leads me to think he is not what he reports to be. Any way, thats my two cents. If they allow me to, I will still use their forum…..if not I will compile posts here and move them onto the Facebook sites I admin and regularly use. I will also soon most likely be posting up new material at 99 Forward once I get this site more solid. I am backlogging my old posts now which is taking some time, but I am keen to get more important info that is brand new out as well. Kind regards and thanks for asking about me. CoS

Thank you for filling me in on how things stand for you and others at JPR. I have been confused lately by some posts which did seem to be trolling, but I did not realize the outcome. It is unfortunate to have so much division, but there will inevitably be so with people of strong position, especially if they feel their beliefs are being threatened. Personally, I like to have all points of view, or as much as I can tolerate. I have not watched TV since George Bush was elected, and have preferred the internet to cable news, of course, even before I cut the cable. I am not as informed as you are, and I admit that I have not read all your posts as there are so many, and all important. I am really happy for you to start your own blog, so I hope I can get it. I don’t do Facebook. Will I still be able to access it? I am worried about JPR and how such good posters leave. I hope you don’t mind that I let a couple people at JPR know where to find you. I thought it was rather strange that my post with your address for here, so easy to find on Bing, was removed promptly when someone asked what had happened with you. I couldn’t answer, as I didn’t know. I think it is a bit much to delete when someone, broiles, asked where you were, which started my search. I think it is wise to be careful with all the information you have worked hard to research and post. Who knows what will go on? Are they afraid of this faux news propornot being accused of being Russian propogandists? Is that the problem? If so, they shall probably lose followers, IMO. We should not be afraid. Knowledge is power.
Thank you for your hard work, and all you do to share.
whispers